Whatever the White House is telling you about the current numbers of COVID, just know that it is incredibly off. There is a large cohort here in Austin that have been tested, but they won’t/can’t actually run our tests. We’re on Day 7 of waiting, and today I received a call letting me know that my test hasn’t been run.
Less shitty calls. More energy toward analysis.
Reason 1 that numbers are off: With a week delay time (so far), the numbers presented are from at least a week ago.
Funny enough, it wasn’t me who ended up getting tested for the Coronavirus – it was Shaun – because he had direct exposure, but I understand that these nurses have the worst job in the world, so I’m cutting them some slack. They were so short on tests that they went with the person who had direct contact with the assumption that I would be positive if Shaun was.
Reason 2 that the numbers are off: They won’t test everyone in a family. We would be 2 positive, not 1.
Do you seriously think that Austin only has 137 confirmed cases? Out of 2 million people in Austin, only 137 + a friend (who is still waiting for their test @ 6 days), Shaun and I have it? Highly doubtful. I mean, I have notoriously bad luck (I once drew 15 losing pieces in a row from a 50/50 chance, and have never won a B-I-N-G-O game…), but this is verging on impossible.
[Note: Will update to slideshow as the numbers get updated. ]
March 24, 2020: Source AustinTexas.gov full browser version: [X] 
March 27, 2020 
March 30, 2020 
April 5, 2020
Ultimately, we had no idea we potentially had it until we received a call from a doctor’s office to let Shaun know he had been in a tiny waiting room with a person who was tested positive.
YES, THE VIRUS IS THAT AGGRESSIVE & CONTAGIOUS.
Hi, my name is Erica. I am one of those many immuno-compromised people that are mentioned on the news as having a higher chance of dying from this virus. It jumped to Shaun (which mainly experienced incredible fatigue, but he mostly got over it in a week), to me immediately.
His experience, was not my experience.
They would have sent me away anyway. I had doctors tell me to just stick it out at home.
“You’re young!” they tell me. My body does not agree. Or rather – holy shit – if this is what a young person has to go through, I feel bad for the more vulnerable people out there.
I am constantly sick and didn’t think of this being anything else. I thought to myself:
Surely this had to be allergies. They always hit me pretty bad at this time of the year.
So in the course of my uneducated week, I went to Home Depot a couple of times, nearly went to a party, had dinner with family and I am HORRIFIED that I potentially put my 8 year old niece at risk through a family member who visited with me and visited with her after. While I coughed into my sleeve, I don’t know how close anyone was and this thing jumps.
Reason 3 that numbers are off: Some people are carriers / are asymptomatic / think it is allergies, and went around town as normal.
Boy, did I get a whopper of a flu experience with my crappy immune system.
STAY THE FUCK HOME. YOU CAN KILL PEOPLE LIKE ME. THEY HAVE UNIVERSAL DNR (Do Not Resuscitate) FOR ALL COVID POSITIVE PEOPLE.
I cannot express how scary it is to know that if it gets “that bad” and I go into cardiac arrest, that they will not revive me.
The Timeline:
March 15: Shaun and I receive a phone call letting us know he had direct contact with someone at a doctor’s office on March 9.
Looking back on the week prior:
March 9: Direct exposure with a person who tested positive with COVID. Shaun did not know this person, did not touch this person, but was within a 4 foot radius in a waiting room/hallway at a doctor’s office.
Panic has started and getting essentials like toilet paper is not possible. They forget part of my order – my meat products (that I will then learn are impossible to replace in the panic).
March 11: Mucuspalooza at night and I start feeling like I’m drowning. Fever starts at 99.5. Since my baseline is actually 97.7, add an additional degree for anyone rockin’ 98.6.
March 15: Our exposure goodnight call.
March 12-27: Incredible fatigue. Sleeping 12-16 hours a day. Dry cough leading to bronchitis. Each time I cough it feels like razors in my throat and is non-productive. I have a temperature of 99.5 (after Tylenol) for 16 days.
I lost 2 weeks of my life. Days started blending into one another.
March 16: Between sleeping and napping, I started my search for getting us a test to show we are positive with COVID-19. I am told:
Come back when you hit 100.4 degrees.
March 17: I wake up in a panic at 3am and order groceries since I cannot leave the house responsibly. I order for what I think is the next day – which turns out to be Tuesday, March 24.
March 19: We finally find a place after 4 days of searching and go through the drive through. I’m melting in my seat and coughing. They choose to test Shaun with the assumption that I’m positive too… but excluded from the current stats.
March 20: Shaun tries to go into a GP appointment that has been waiting ~6 weeks for and they turn him away. Day 1: No Test Results
March 21: I’m feeling okay. Starting to feel on the mend. Do some gardening and have a great Saturday night. Day 2: No Test Results
March 22: Body is ANGRY. Having fun is out of the picture. Running a fever from the time I wake up, to the time I go to bed. Day 3: No Test Results
March 23: Sleeping 16 hours. Day 4: No Test Results
March 24: Sleeping 14 hours. Day 5: No Test Results – However, Shaun does receive a phone call from the testing place letting him know that they have not yet processed his test. They check in on him in case he needs to go to the Emergency Room.
Shaun has to remind me what day and date it is.
March 25: Slept 14 hours. Day 6: No Test Results. Overnight I break my fever and wake up with my bed soaked.
March 26: Wake up to a 98.8 degree temperature. It isn’t 99. I’ll take it. Day 7: No Test Results. I receive a call from the testing place telling me that my test has not been run to which I then have to notify them that I never had a test done… But Shaun is still waiting on his.
I spent 16 days with a mid-grade fever.
How does one even prepare for that? I am physically and emotionally exhausted. Lots of tears. So much frustration.
My body has forsaken me.
I haven’t even started to unpack being part of pandemic and being sick for so long. I’m grateful my therapist does video calls.
When the White House is telling you that we’ve conquered this, it is a blatant LIE. How have I not heard that I have a deadly virus that can take out people?
HOW THE FUCK DO I LIVE IN A “FIRST WORLD COUNTRY” AND I CAN’T FIND OUT IF I HAVE A SICKNESS THAT WILL ADD TO A GLOBAL PANDEMIC.
There are so many tests that have not been run and the current stats we have are not representative of the true breadth of this pandemic. People like us – who are most likely positive (and are told as such by the frontline nurses and doctors) – are not being educated on their current health status.
We just started this nation-wide lockdown, but I’ve been on quarantine since March 15 and I’m already losing my mind. I feel lucky that my therapist does video calls, but I can feel that familiar feeling creeping in as we’re prisoners in our oasis, our getaway, our place.
Depression.
As a Humanist, I’m devastated. If there was ever a moment, I need to say, “Fuck you, capitalism!” Thank you for making sure I’m a Socialist.
Knowing I’m not even considered a number or a stat? Welcome to the official decline.
Updates
March 27: I’m starting to realize how my short term memory is shot. I can’t hold a thought to go from one browser to another without forgetting. I tried 4 times before remembering I had to get a glass of water from the kitchen. I don’t remember much of the time I was sick, but I am starting to remember asking Shaun to do something multiple times, and he had to remind me that I had already set it up with him.
March 31: Shaun did hear back from the testing. He tested 10 days after exposure, and took 12 days to analyze his swab. He came back NEGATIVE. But to be clear this does not mean that he did not have it. People can get over COVID in 10-14 days if they are healthy.
Things that make a test a false-negative:
- Getting tested after you’re “healed”.
- “However, preliminary research from China suggests that the most common type of COVID-19 test, known as a reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) test, may give false-negative results about 30% of the time.” (LiveScience.com)
The RT-PCR swab test is the test that Shaun received.
And now I’m not counted because Shaun was negative and I’m damn sure I had it. Tell my body and lungs otherwise.
In this Arizona news story, the testing company said the following:
“She said she had too many labs sit on a shelf on hold somewhere for five or six days and the sample goes bad and they expire and they don’t end up testing it.”
12 News – Arizona
And The New York Times says (the closest explanation of my problem):
False-negative test results — tests that indicate you are not infected, when you are — seem to be uncomfortably common. Increasingly, and disturbingly, I hear a growing number of anecdotal stories from my fellow doctors of patients testing negative for coronavirus and then testing positive — or people who are almost certainly infected who are testing negative.
The New York Times
April 1: The interview I did with The Statesman is published: Coronavirus in Austin: Weekslong waits for some test results
April 1 is the first day I had a normal temperature at 97.7 in a long time.
April 2: I set up a doctor’s appointment at 2 places – Austin Regional Clinic for both my gyno (I got an IUD in Feb and haven’t been able to follow up.), and trying to get into see a doctor I have essentially made my GP. I ask the following:
On Mar 9, my hub had contact w someone w COVID and I spent the next 2 weeks sleeping 14-18 hours a day, 99.5-100.5 fever (with Tylenol) for 16 days (My baseline is 97.7), drowning in mucus, dry cough. Had test refusal since I was not associated to the vector directly, but I tend to be compromised due to autoimmune issues. Told by the frontline workers that they weren’t interested in testing me. My short term memory after that is horrifying. Need check up. Bad bronchitis. Next steps?
April 3: My GP messages me back:
Ms Kuschel,
I suggest you contact the last doctor you saw since we have not seen each other in almost a year.
What I can tell you is that you are likely out of the window for testing in the first place as it has been more than 2 weeks since you had the possible contact through your husband. I am not sure what you are referring to with “Bad bronchitis” but if you are feeling short of breath, I suggest you head to the nearest emergency room.
We are offering phone visits here at ARC, so you can feel free to make an appointment with any of our providers.
I just got “move on to someone else” when I’m asking about neurological issues and bronchitis. How do I convince a doctor to take me on in this condition?!
I’m feeling hurt and unheard, and the emotional work here is exhausting to compliment my physical issues.
April 6: Temperature: 99.7 (100.7 for normal people)
